The charm of Gaspe

From the dome car of our train, the beautiful landscape of the Gaspé peninsula rolls out before us, and we catch glimpses of everyday life here as families clamber on and off the train, riding from one small town to the next.

Across the aisle from us a portly woman wearing a purple "World's Best Grandmother" sweatshirt calmly monitors her two young grandchildren as they pop up and down from under the table.

"McDonald's," says Isabel, about 3, longingly to her grandmother.

"Yes, Grandpa will take you to McDonald's," says the woman as she gathers up their things to go.

Down below on the platform I can see many reunions taking place, with French double-cheeked kisses, at Port-Daniel-Gascons.

But alas, as yet no Grandpa. The three sit waiting on a bright yellow bench as the train pulls away.

We've taken the overnight Via Rail Chaleur train from Montreal, spending the night rocking in a comfortable sleeping car as the train crossed the peninsula and threaded its way along the south coast, stopping in village after village of tidy white clapboard houses with red, blue or yellow trim and always dominated by a church -- Roman Catholic, if the settlers were from elsewhere in Quebec or Acadia; Anglican or United Church, if they were from the Channel Islands or Loyalists from the U.S.

Just past the villages we can see the blue expanse of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Train travel forces you to relax, and by morning our city pace has slowed somewhat and we're ready for a hearty bacon-and- eggs breakfast in the dining car before departing the train at Percé.

Percé gets its name and its fame from an enormous slab of limestone, 433 metres long, 90 metres wide and 88 metres at its highest point, that appears to have been been pierced (percé) with a huge, uncannily round hole.

Like all of the villages along this coast, Percé was once dependent on the cod fishery. Throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th, Gaspé residents and migrants drawn by the promise of jobs came here to help dry and salt the cod which would be taken away by ships and serve as provisions for Europeans and sailing ships' crews. Photographs at the Le Chafaud interpretation centre and elsewhere around town show men holding huge codfish that hang down to their knees, and salted cod stacked like cord wood on the beaches. It's moving and disheartening to see those photos, knowing that within a little over a century the seemingly limitless fishery was effectively wiped out.

Now Percé, along with other towns along the coast, has remade itself as a tourist attraction. Small inns and cottages serve vacationing Montrealers, and the lobster and scallop catches provide tasty fresh seafood. And in these towns, unlike in Montreal, where everyone seems to be fluently bilingual, you'll probably even get a chance to practise your French -- although it's not required, as there are always English speakers around who seem willing to be pressed into service.

It was humbling and enlightening, especially for a western Canadian, to see the fierce pride people here take in their land and their culture. Here, in the presence of these kind and welcoming people, I could better understand how maintaining the integrity of culture, language and history is of vital importance.

Remi Cloutier is a guy for whom history is so important he started his own museum, completely without government help. Cloutier, among other things a welder and architect, gave up his professions to devote himself to the preservation of the general store in l'Anse-a-Beaufils, just outside of Percé. The 1928 store was originally owned by the Robin, Jones and Whitman Company from the Jersey Islands -- the company that also ran the cod salting business and general stores throughout the region -- but was taken over by Cloutier's father, Gaston Cloutier.

Gaston retired in 2001 after working 30 years in the store and died of a heart attack just three hours after locking up for the last time. It's clear this museum, which was put together by volunteers, is a labour of love in memory of Gaston.

"You got everything in the general store, from talcum powder for the bottoms of newborns to coffins for the deceased," Remi Cloutier says. In the store the original oak cabinets line the walls and shelves are filled with medications, clothes, tools and what-have-you from the '30s, '40s and '50s.

But the best thing about the store is Cloutier himself, who puts on quite a show in French or English and is determined you'll go home with no scrap of information left unlearned.

The people of this coast, dependent for so long on the bounty of the sea, have found a new way to reap profits from that bounty -- but now it involves watching the sea's creatures rather than netting or harpooning them. From the seabird colony on Bonaventure Island to the whale watching cruises at Gaspé to breathtaking Forillon Park at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, the area brims with sealife.

Bonaventure Island, a short 3.5-km boat ride from Percé, is North America's largest bird sanctuary, with an estimated 250,000 seabirds nesting there each year, including 110,000 northern gannets. An easy 45-minute walk from the dock leads right to the gannet colony, a vast expanse of gull-like birds feeding their young, defending their territory, and circling above looking for their mates, which, amazingly, they find easily among the huge colony.

There is a cacophony of squawks and cries, as well as astonishment expressed in many languages by tourists. ("Oh la la! Oh la la!" exclaimed the French women beside me.)

Outside Percé, further east along the water and past a number of tidy villages and the larger town of Gaspe, is the beautiful Forillon National Park. Established in 1970, the 240-sq.-km park is a peninsula jutting out into the sea. It includes 10 different rock formations and a wide variety of wildlife, especially, of course, marine life.

After a walk along the beach and a stroll in the sun through tall beach grass, it was back to the town of Gaspé, a community of 17,500 people -- more in summer. This town, like the rest of the region, is finding a new way to support itself, in this case replacing logging and fishing with tourism and renewable energy projects -- specifically wind power.

The highlight of Gaspé was dinner at La Maison William Wakeham, a Victorian fancy begun in the 1850s and completed in 1880. Dinner, of fresh fish and game and other local ingredients, was delicious, but the highlight was a tour of the house itself, which is now an auberge, or inn. If I ever go back to Gaspé I'll be spending the night in the octagonal Queen's Room, an enormous wooden yurt-shaped space filled with Victoriana which was a former music room -- and now looks like a honeymoon suite for a Mongol prince and his prim British bride.

Our last day in the Gaspé peninsula was the most memorable. Back in Forillon Park, the company Croisière aux Balienes à Forillon leads whale-watching tours the likes of which we've never seen in B.C. Depending on the time of year, up to seven types of whales can be seen here -- we were thrilled to see three types, the first when we were barely out of the harbour. We saw fin whales, and on our return a minke whale. The boat, a 48-passenger Zodiac, could manoeuvre quickly in the water when a whale was sighted.

On our multilingual boat were French, Dutch, Italians, Germans and Canadians, but all fell silent when a giant blue whale -- at 130,000 tonnes the world's largest animal -- swam toward our boat and surfaced beside it. Our guide told us that of 6,000 to 8,000 of these creatures left on earth, about 400 are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The whale dwarfed our boat, and we could have reached out and touched its shining blue-grey back. In the silence we could hear its slow, measured breathing.

- Via Rail's Chaleur route is a relaxing way to see the Gaspé region. The train, which goes overnight from Montreal, has comfortable rooms for one, two or three on its sleeper cars, with linen, down comforters, tiny bathrooms and friendly service. The dining car offers full down-home-style meals in the $6 to $7 range and there is a bar car as well.

Cost for the trip from Montreal to the town of Gaspé (sleeper, one way, summer rate) is $364.59 for an adult and $328.40 for a senior. A special offer allows a senior and a companion (either senior or adult) to travel for $419.90 for the two. For more information visit www.viarail.ca or phone 1-888-VIA-RAIL (842-7245).

Eating

- La Maison du Pêcheur in Percé specializes in lobster. Four-course meals from $30 to $45. Comfortable oceanside setting in a former fisherman's shack famous for housing FLQ artist/sympathizers in 1969. You can take a tour upstairs and still see their graffiti on the ceiling. 418-782-5331; www.maisondupecheur.com

- Maison William Wakeham in Gaspé produces gourmet dishes crafted from local products, in a unique Victorian house. Specials include local seafood and game. www.maisonwakeham.ca.

Parks

- Bonaventure Island is North America's largest bird sanctuary, with an estimated 250,000 seabirds nesting there every year. Admission: $3.50. Various boats offer transportation the the island for $20 per adult.

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